Michael Bradford

In the process, Michael Bradford learned a lot about multitrack recording, and he also acquired a part‑time job as an assistant at Ambience, one of Detroit's top studios at that time, frequented by the likes of Bob Seger and Anita Baker, as well as advertising companies recording commercials. Limited in terms of how much high‑calibre work he could do in Detroit, Bradford relocated to Los Angeles at the end of the '80s. By then, as a full‑time freelancer, he had already become adept at programming MIDI and using early versions of Pro Tools. "Sound Tools was the first thing I used," he recalls. "Then, as it became more of a multitrack thing instead of just a stereo editing and mastering tool, I grew with Digidesign. Consequently, I was among the first people to really want to record and work purely in Pro Tools whenever I could. You see, even though I had an analogue background, what attracted me to Pro Tools was the fact that, when the plug‑ins became available, you could mix in it and have instant recall. I could see how advantageous that would be if you were switching from session A to session B and not have time to re‑document everything and reset all of the controls. For me, Pro Tools' ability to reset was just amazing, because you weren't just automating the console, you were automating the outboard equipment; you were automating the mix.